Rags to Riches Success Story

Today’s issue of What’s Working Wednesday looks at the career of an Internet Marketing pioneer.

We’ll start, as all stories do, at the beginning.

In the mid-90’s, the hero of today’s email was a struggling business owner. In fact, he was dead broke.

Like many of us, he made the mistake in his early sales messages of focusing on “Me, Myself, and I” rather than on, “You, the prospect”.

Fortunately, also like you and I, our hero was also wise enough to seek out mentors. One of them corrected his advertising mistake, and sent him off on the path to success.

Along the way our uneducated hero had to learn a lot, and he did so by buying every single course he could find. Even when he didn’t have the money, he invested anyways.

Each time he would take action to invest in himself – on a wing and a prayer – the money he needed to pay for these lessons would suddenly materialize – thanks to the actions he took based on those lessons.

Eventually the connection he made between investing in his education and earning money led him to create this Law of Business Success:

“Ears that pay listen better than ears that don’t. Ears that pay more listen better than ears that pay less.”

Later he would discover that when he needed money, all he had to do was add value to the lives of his customers, send them a great offer, and he could pay for plane tickets, cars, and even houses.

But we aren’t at that point yet…

His persistence in and outside of business would help him become world-renowned in the fitness industry for many controversial reasons.

But he wasn’t always the brave and bold warrior that we know. In fact, his early years of struggle were characterized by a fear of rejection.

Yes, even this mighty warrior, a man who recommends “Thick Face, Black Heart” to all, was once paralyzed by that simple litter word, “No”.

But he persisted, and eventually found that he simply needed to mature to a point where he was no longer bothered by rejection, and in fact, embraced it.

Thus, another Law of Success was born:

“It’s not enough to want something – you have to believe you deserve it – and be willing to find a way.” – Our Hero

Still, there were other mistakes he would make. The first product he ever created was a bit of a flop.

Why?

Because he had yet to learn this valuable lesson:

“One of the fastest ways to go broke is to sell something you think people need.” – Ted Nicholas

He realized not to force his products ideas on the market, and instead dedicated himself to identifying what people wanted. Once he was able to do that, the money started rolling in.

But that rush of money all started in humble beginnings.

He created his first breakthrough product – one that would go on to sell hundreds of thousands of copies – under Spartan circumstances.

Using an iMac computer (leased on a $25 per month plan), he sat on a folding chair in front of a beaten-up old card table (that the iMac nearly fell through), as he wrote.

When he was done, he had finally put all of the pieces of the puzzle together to create that breakthrough product.

“And from that launching pad I made a fortune. Isn’t that cool?” Matt Furey said in his book, “My First Million“.

In his book, Matt shares this wisdom (that is quite similar to something that my business partner Matt Smith tells our Mastermind clients):

“All of the things you know and take for granted with the idea that, ‘Oh, that’s no big deal. That’s easy.’ You may be surprised to know that it is a BIG DEAL to somebody else. And those are all potential products that can be put out there to help.”

That could be the million-dollar piece of advice that finally allows you to go and create your break through product, too.

I hope it is.

But back to our story…

As he became famous, more problems arose. This time, it was constant criticism and hate. Furey dealt with it by anchoring the negative feedback to a positive emotion.

Each time he received an email that called him names, he’d let out a victory roar. Soon, through this anchoring exercise, the criticism no longer felled him, and instead it fueled him.

He attributes this breakthrough to another mentor, Dan Kennedy.

Like my story, which I hope you’ve heard, Furey also had a, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear” moment.

Furey credits Kennedy with helping him finally break the $1 million per year mark almost a decade ago. As Furey says in his book…

“Success in this business is understanding that creating a product is the easy part…The most important element is what I learned from Tom Hopkins and Ted Nicholas and Kennedy…

“And that is the selling and marketing of the product… regardless of what you have to offer the world, you’ve got to have the ability to market and sell in order to do that. It’s not going to be done with hope, because hope is not a plan of action.”

There are more lessons to be learned in Furey’s book. I recommend it. If you’ve followed his career, you’ll be surprised at all he went through during the 90’s, which were very tough years on him.

Craig Ballantyne is the author of The Perfect Day Formula: How to Own the Day and Control Your Life. Craig has been a contributor to Men’s Health magazine for over 17 years. Today he teaches his gift high-performing entrepreneurs how to squeeze more out of their days, increase their income, and make more quality time for their families in his Perfect Life Workshop and Work-Life Mastery programs. Craig used his own advice to overcome crippling anxiety attacks in 2006, and he’ll teach you his 5 Pillars of Success so you can increase your income, decrease your work time, and live the life of your dreams. Learn more about Craig at craigballantyne.com

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